Case study of the load demand of electric vehicle charging and optimal charging schemes in an urban area

The interest in electric vehicles (EVs) is rapidly increasing, and the upward trend seems to continue also in the future. As a result of the increasing energy consumption, the grid infrastructure has to be developed further, and moreover, it is necessary to analyze the network effects of the electric vehicle charging. In this paper, the challenge is approached by an actual case area in Finland and simulated EV traffic. The data used in the simulation are collected by measuring the traffic flow on the road leading to the case area. The objective of the paper is to demonstrate how the grid effects of large-scale electrification of transportation can be addressed, and what data are required to assess the additional charging load in a feasible manner. The data are processed by applying the Monte-Carlo method, and also a sensitivity analysis is performed.